What is the current LW moderation policy? I did a search but couldn't find it. (I have the power to ban individual comments and posts but have never used it except on obvious spam.)
The policy that I follow and that others don't seem to be violating is that apart from spam and very rare unusual cases (like retroactive edits by sockpuppets), the only comments that can be banned are bad comments by users who managed to accumulate minus hundreds of 30-day Karma (or applied a lot of concentrated and highly downvoted effort more quickly). Bad comments are not banned if they are rare or in form of occasional bursts, for example. If I'm not forgetting someone, of the active users, currently only Will_Newsome and sam0345 have this distinction. (Edit: and now also eridu.)
In light of recent (and potential) events, I wanted to start a discussion here about a certain method of handling conflicts on this site's discussion threads, and hopefully form a consensus on when to use the measure described in the title. Even if the discussion has no impact on site policy ("executive veto"), I hope administrators will at least clarify when such a measure will be used, and for what reason.
I also don't want to taint or "anchor" the discussion by offering hypothetical situations or arguments for one position or another. Rather, I simply want to ask: Under what conditions should a specific poster, "Alice" be prohibited from replying directly to the arguments in a post/comment made by another poster, "Bob"? (Note: this is referring specifically to replies to ideas and arguments Bob has advanced, not general comments about Bob the person, which should probably go under much closer scrutiny because of the risk of incivility.)
Please offer your ideas and thoughts here on when this measure should be used.